First report on Aero Med crash leads to questions about rooftop safety

Press File PhotoFirefighters stand on the rooftop helipad of Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital last week after a helicopter crash and fire.

GRAND RAPIDS -- In the wake of a preliminary report suggesting a medical helicopter clipped a radio tower prior to a fiery crash, some people are considering the safety of a helipad on the roof of Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital.

A critic said helipads atop hospitals, particularly in urban areas where tall buildings affect winds, create dangers for patients and staff. A city commissioner suggested a study evaluating the benefits of the rooftop helipad compared to landing zones on the ground.

But many think the rooftop helipad, in use since 1993, has proved the best way to get critically injured patients to the hospital. The crash is an aberration, the only one since Aero Med began 21 years ago.

"Being West Michigan's only Level One trauma center, we get a lot of critical cases," hospital spokesman Bruce Rossman said. "By having the pad there, it does get patients from the scene (faster) ... than any other route."

He said a ground landing pad would require a secure area, with hazards of trees, overhead lines and buildings.

Mayor George Heartwell said: "I've been sitting in my sixth-floor office for more than four years watching Aero Med take off and land. This is such an anomaly. As awful as it is to have an accident, I'm certainly not going to respond in a knee-jerk way."

But Dr. Bryan Bledsoe, a Texas emergency-room doctor who has written text books used in medical training, thinks helicopters are overused, and present a danger when landing on hospital rooftops. He said it was only luck that kept fuel from spreading to lower levels and igniting.

"It could've been a World Trade Center-type of event. ... It really put a lot of patients at risk. It's going to happen again someplace. Next time, they're not going to be as lucky."

In the end, only the pilot, Raymond Sampson, and passenger, Willard Elliott, a Federal Aviation Administration official, were hurt in Thursday's spectacular crash that turned the helicopter into a fireball. The two were conducting a check ride, required every six months for Sampson's certification.

The crash's cause has not been determined, but witnesses and security video suggest the Aero Med helicopter's tail rotor clipped a radio tower before the helicopter spun and crashed onto the roof during training exercises, according to a preliminary report released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

911 CALLS FROM THE CRASH

Listen to 911 calls from the Aero Med helicopter crash.

A hospital security camera captured shadows on the helipad as the helicopter lifted around 11 a.m.

"The shadow of the helicopter's tail rotor appeared to strike an object on one of the towers, and the tail rotor immediately shattered and the helicopter went into a right yaw," the report said.

The helicopter then came back into view of the recorder as the main rotor blades struck the brick structure under the radio tower.

A hospital nurse told investigators she saw the helicopter lift, and fly toward the brick structure before the tail rotor hit the tower. Another witness, on the seventh floor across the street, "reported that the helicopter's tail rotor clipped the radio tower about mid-span and the tail rotor immediately disintegrated."

Several witnesses told The Press the tail rotor hit the tower before the crash.

Sampson reported hearing a "pop" at 40 feet, and the helicopter yawed to the right and started to vibrate.

"He instinctively added left pedal to counteract the right yaw, and it seemed that he had some tail rotor authority," the report said. He attempted to land when the motor rotor blades hit the 27-foot brick structure east of the helipad, and the helicopter fell straight down.

Elliott squeezed out of the pilot's "chin bubble" on his back, and helped the pilot out the same way. They climbed onto ductwork on the side of the building as the helicopter erupted in flames. Grand Rapids firefighters put out the fire and rescued the pair.

An NTSB investigator, Jim Silliman, would not speculate on whether the "pop" noise could have been the rear rotor disintegrating.

He said sites and configurations of helipads are left to the FAA.

Some think the roof has proven itself, with more than 8,000 safe landings.

"Where are you going to put another landing pad?" asked Senez Rodriguez, director of Kent County Emergency Medical Services.

"Just from looking at it, there's a lot less things to obstruct a rooftop landing, than having to come down on the ground with buildings all around. You don't want to be an alarmist and take things out of proportion."

City Commissioner Jim Jendrasiak has concerns, but is not prepared to call the roof helipad unsafe. He suggested studying the pros and cons of a ground pad versus one on the roof.

"If there was a malfunction during takeoff, there might be less chance of endangering civilians with a ground pad," he said. "I'd like to see what recommendations come from the FAA."

He thinks that moving the radio tower should be considered. The tower is used for hospital communications and other purposes.

Rossman, the hospital spokesman, said everything is being studied. Use of the helipad was stopped, with no definitive timetable for resuming. In the meantime, air medical transports are landing at Gerald R. Ford International Airport and patients are being taken by ambulance to Butterworth.

The Fire Department has not taken a position on a rooftop helipad, but Deputy Chief Jeff VanDellen said it could have been worse if firefighters had not objected years ago to a request that a fueling area be included.

Lody Zwarensteyn, president of the Alliance for Health, said the rooftop's benefit is putting critically injured patients near the emergency room.

"I'm sure there are lessons being learned. They will learn from it so it doesn't happen again. You've got to deal with what you got. Rooftops have been used a long time. It's very common."